Star Wars Episode 352: Awakening
by Michael Raziel
Summary: Part 2 of Jedi Purge era serial. Feedback welcomed!


Star Wars Episode 3.5.2: Awakening

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away . . .

_There is no death; there is only the Force._

The voice was unfamiliar, but the words were not. Any Jedi Master would recognize the Code when they heard it, and Yaddle had been a Jedi for almost five centuries. Raised in the temple on Coruscant, the words of the Jedi Code were engrained in her psyche, as much a part of her as her arms or legs. Even so, the diminuitive master was unsettled as she rolled off her pallet and opened herself to the Kemparan night; the thought had come to her unbidden through the Force, tinged with a note of tightly controlled panic.

Something was coming, and Yaddle could feel the icy blackness of the Dark Side, its presence more pervasive than ever before. It lay like a scum of rotten ice over the Force. Whatever was happening, she feared it would not bode well for the order that she'd devoted her long life to.

Six hours earlier, something terrible had happened. The Dark Side was no stranger to a Jedi, especially one who'd wielded the Force as long as Yaddle had, but it had always before lurked in the backround, a shadow cast by the shining light that was her tool and ally. Six hours ago the shadow had surged forward and _roared_, a single word that rang the Force like a gong: "Vader."

Every Jedi in the temple had felt it; the more sensative among them brought to their knees with the raw power of it. The young Padawans -- given to her care while their masters went off to war -- had looked to her for instruction, or maybe for consolation. The temple on Kemparas was her responsibility, she was the most senior of the three Masters in residence and had once sat on the Jedi Council with Masters Windu and Yoda. They came to her seeking an explanation, but Yaddle had none to give. The shadow covered all; no insight could surface through that smothering black. She'd retired to her chambers, hoping that the stillness of meditation might help her to see through the darkness, but hours had passed with no change.

Until: _There is no death; there is only the Force_. Always before the words of the Code had been a comfort, but that this particular line had come to her, now, on the heels of such an unprecedented surge of darkness --

_A Jedi knows no fear_. That was what she told herself as she pulled her roughspun brown cloak around herself and clipped her lightsaber to her belt, and the thought brought a small measure of comfort. No matter what happened, she was a Jedi, a Master of the Order. She would face her fears with the Force as her ally, and if it was the will of the Force that she should fall, then she would accept it with as much grace as she could muster. She smiled as her claw brushed the hilt on her hip. _Grace in my soul and lightsaber in my hand, and let the darkness beware_.

She felt the Padawan approach, his sense familiar and agitated as he came down the hallway at a sprint. His name was Crirac Jeth, ten years old and given the third watch in the temples comm center. The Order was spread thin in their war against the Seperatists, so thin that even younglings must bear weight far beyond their years. She reached out with her will and opened the portal to her chambers as he was reaching for the controls on the far side.

"Master Yaddle." she gave him a small nod of approval as he fought to regain some semblence of control. The young human had admirable discipline for his age. "There's a signal coming in from the fringes of the system. It's sketchy, but it sounds like a distress call, and the scanners say there's a Jedi transponder out there."

_And so it begins_. "Calm yourself, Padawan. Use the Force. Stretch out with your feelings and tell me what approaches."

The boy closed his eyes, and she felt him lose himself in the currents of the Force. She followed, and felt the presence that had intruded into her meditations, flashing with rigidly controlled fear as it shot toward the planet. It was a Jedi, that much was clear, and she was preparing herself for --

"Death." Young Crirac's face had drained of color, and his green eyes were wide as he came back to himself. "Death, and fear, and fire, and nothing good."

It was not fear she sensed from him, but an iron determination, the warriors ideal of meeting ones fate with weapon in hand. It nearly broke her heart to feel such a thing in one so young. Through the Force, she saw a glimpse of the Temple_ -- her_ Temple -- in flames, and knew at once what she must do.

"Padawan." His gaze locked on to hers, his left hand touching the lightsaber on his belt. "You will go to the library, _now_, as fast as you are able. You will find index number six - four -three - two - nine - seven. You will take the contents of that box with you and gather as many of the younglings as you can. Get them to the landing pad and put yourselves on the first ship you find. You will need an astromech to help you fly it."

At that, the first hint of fear rolled off him. "Me? But Master, I've only flown in the holosims, I've never even been in a real cockpit before, I couldn't --"

"You can, and you must." There was no time to be gentle, she could feel the menace drawing close around them. "The other Masters and I must stay to defend the Temple. There is no one else. Trust in yourself, and remember that the Force is with you."

There was more she would say, a thousand things; but time was running out and she had her own preperations to make. "Go, quickly!"

The boy spun and pelted off through the hallway, shouting a silent alarm through the Force. Yaddle sighed and hobbled in the opposite direction, summoning the other masters to meet her in the Temples main audience chamber. The war had finally come to Kemparas. The time she'd dreaded drew near.

The time for Yaddle and her bretheren to make their stand.


End file.
